Albany Academy avenged a 70-65 defeat suffered against the Dutchmen back on Dec. 14 at Guilderland.

"We were more than ready to go," Cadets senior point guard John Moutopoulous said. "We thought we let our community down and our team down when we went to their place back in December."

The Cadets (11-2) jumped out to a 12-4 lead to start the game, and senior Matt Knezovic drained his third 3-pointer of the game to provide the hosts with an 18-6 lead with two minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

"That's what you're supposed to do at home," Albany Academy coach Brian Fruscio said. "That allows us to get some energy and get the crowd in the game."

The Cadets entered the second quarter with a 27-13 advantage and built up a 47-22 lead at halftime.

Guilderland (12-2) went 2-of-9 from the field in the second quarter and was outscored 20-9.

The Dutchmen opened up the second half on an 11-4 spurt and pulled to within 49-33 with 4:38 left in the third quarter.

"We knew they were going to come out in the second half and try to close that gap," Cadets senior Teigue Donohoe said.

Moutopoulos scored six consecutive points to push his team's lead back to 24 points before Guilderland went on another spurt and got as close as 12 points.

"I checked their record and they're pretty good. They're going to do that," Fruscio said. "(Guilderland coach Ronald Osinski) made some great adjustments."

Albany Academy scored five of the last seven points in the quarter and entered the fourth with a 63-48 cushion.

Moutopoulos recorded 12 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter.

"We have a lot of different players who can get going and they did a great job getting me space," Moutopoulos said.